Monrovia – Conservation International (CI), in partnership with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Aether has certificated several technicians from various line ministries as Green House Gas (GHG) inventory experts.
Aether is an environmentally friendly group based in the United Kingdom that provides consultancy in air quality and climate change emissions inventories, forecasting, and policy analysis.
The certification ceremony came on the back of a six-month project under the Capacity Building Initiative for Transparency (CBIT) funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF). The project sought to equip technicians into becoming reliable Greenhouse Gas Emission inventory data experts.
Speaking at the event on Friday in Monrovia, the EPA Executive Director, Professor Wilson Tarpeh said the project is part of activities aimed at strengthening Liberia’s national capacity by executing the transparency elements of the Paris Climate Agreement.
Prof. Tarpeh lauded the EPA, CI and their partners for the commitments in ensuring that the goal of the project was met.
Speaking further, he revealed that since the inception of the project, it has made significant progress, some of which include ensuring that there are procedures to measure, track and report mitigation and adaptation data from land use sectors like Agriculture, Energy and Waste. He also named the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) transparency system that is put in place in accordance with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) standards.
The NDC is a nationwide sectoral document developed by the Government of Liberia in line with the UNFCCC to limit its greenhouse gas emissions emanating mainly from the energy sector which uses traditional fuels.
The project, he said is also enhancing coordination amongst government ministries and agencies on the implementation of the NDCs and a fully developed data integration and sharing procedures for use by stakeholders as a one stop source.
“We can now rely on the pull of sectoral experts to help develop and support the country National GHG and MRV inventory system,” he said.
With these he said that the capacity building gap in the GHG, MRV Inventory process is gradually becoming thin.
“We can also boost of having experts that are knowledgeable in making the country complete its NDCs through the gathering of quality data, analyzed data, ensure quality control and assurance in data processing as well as report on sectoral emissions among emitters,” Professor Tarpeh stressed.
The EPA boss also thanked the Global Environment Facility for its support to Liberia in implementing the CBIT Project. This support he said, has given the country the enthusiasm to strengthen its commitment to the Paris Agreement and solicit funding for phase two of the project that will jump start soon.
He also lauded Aether for its immense support in ensuring the target of the project is met.
Giving an overview of the project, the EPA’s CBIT Focal point, Mr. Arthur Becker explained that Aether engaged the Government of Liberia to identify sectorial experts across NDCs sectors to embarked on a vigorous training that cross several cardinal sectors.
Aether carried out intense training and was able to certificate 65 out of 96 initial participants, he noted.
He stated the sole purpose of the training was to ensure reporting emissions level across the lenses of these sectors, adding the training has a fundamental and corresponding benefit to reinforce Liberia’s drive in reporting GHG Emissions across different sectors, and the existing sectors of the NDCs revised version which comes out to play a vital role in the next five years in terms of the country’s implementation.
Also speaking, the lead trainer on the CBIT project and consultant for Aether United Kingdom, Madam Emma Salisbury said the essence of the project was to provide imposing greenhouse gas training to national experts engaged in the process. She added that data collected have been calculated together and produced sectorial greenhouse gas inventory report. She said in addition, Aether have supported the development of the Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) system for the GHG inventory.
“It is our hope that this certification process is going to produce a strong foundation for future greenhouse gas inventory engagement and capacity building,” Emma said.
Also speaking, Conservation International’s CBIT project manager, Nelson Jallah applauded the energy sector, as the highest emitter of GHG, for being the best performing sector during the training.
The sector, he said completed all of the courses and submitting the required activities’ data, which were used by the consultant to prepare Liberia’s sectoral report from Fiscal Year 2017 to 2019.
In recognition of their outstanding performance, they were awarded the best participating hub certificate alongside the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) who also exhibited consistency in the submission of reports and providing data information for the GHG inventory.
He revealed that during the course of the project, there were hubs established at relevant ministries and agencies, and the University of Liberia. These hubs comprise of the Ministry of Agriculture, Monrovia City Corporation, Ministry of Mines and Energy and the Forestry Development Authority (FDA).